I went to the home of the tiger man, telling him the work was my whole thing. Don’t worry, he told me, I have bigger plans for you- I want you to run the place. In one week I make the jump to the third restaurant, Michelin starred, in the stratosphere of service expectations.
There will be good days and bad days. When a customer gives you a handmade business card and says she writes cookbooks- in fact has her own recipe for tortilla soup- you may be trouble. When folks say they are for
Texas or New Orleans you say you visited Texas and New Orleans- money well spent, while the chefs were in Mexico- and they tell you to go back.
This means promotion to the top of the heap, where the sky is open and welcoming, and the hawks circle slowly. This is a good vista and a sleep hard-won. This is the summer sun on pine trees.